The woman…. Smiled softly as the respective commander had chided her for her behavior. In fact, she seemed to have expected such a reaction. Even practically baiting it out.Of course, she was a scholar and part of her duties was simply arguing facts, theories, and what have you.
She soon rose out of the lap of the creature she had sat in and walked around the room. Her tone taking a sudden shift as her smile seemed to fade. Her eyes twinkled a bit, but remained fixed in space as if she was drawing into herself. She was nearly a different person as she began to speak.
“Some eras ago, where war was prominent in this very world… a General waged a tactic in a land where chasms scarred the earth, that bore deep enough that light could not escape and could even turn a man to liquid if he were to fall. Naturally, these lands were prime area’s of defenses as you can funnel an army into one front, thus sending him into a gauntlet of arrows and boulders that’s a Grimm fable with a bitter end.”
She soon turned to face the man. Her face was practically like stone as “polito” continued the tale.
“This… particular General thought of something more unique. Instead of traversing the usual paths. He constructed mobile bridges. The labor he had origionally consisted only of slaves and camp followers… which is fine… as quality is not needed as a typical soldier’s life is as expendable as a drop of water in a lake.”
“He needed quantity to get an army across and to limit the disaster when one bridge fails. But to manufacture as many bridges as he needed with what he had was improbable. Annnd... it's not like loyalty wasn't running as high as it is now. When your liege tells you to die for him, you did it. So… he gave civilians a choice after conquering their towns and cities. Give labor with a chance of some sort of life, or suffer such cruelty that was not bound by possibility, but the limits of the imagination of man. He didn’t kill them. Not immediately at least, oh did he draw it out. It wasn’t torture, many would prefer that. It was as close to the heart of a demon as anyone could get. He starts with the family, and got real creative. Ripping their children apart piece by piece. Burning wives at the stake after sending them around the army like a shared mount. Making people walk through the cold uncovered until they stopped begging for their lives, but for blankets. You think it, he’s done it.”
“And he gave people only one chance. After a few public examples, if they did not have the courage to take both their family and their own lives…. Well he was at their mercy. Many, were quick to throw out loyalties as I am sure they are now.”
Ardath looked Ba’alzamon firmly in the eyes, with a fire in her reaching a feverish pitch. There was no games being played. No dancing around the fire. No beating the bush. Just the very personality of Ardath that sought results through her crusade. The very efforts that seemed to have gone unnoticed.
“Sir… I’ve studied the human mind long enough. And I know, that without a doubt that it’s possible for a man’s heart to not be swayed. But their hands can certainly be forced against all the whims of laws, loyalties, beliefs, and morals that they believe in when they are face to face with a fate far worse than the pains of death… and are still too cowardly to discover the final mystery.”
“Give me your go ahead. Give me a target. Give me a time frame. And I will be serving you your breakfast within their walls.”
